Blog Tour/Excerpt

Imperfect Match, a sexy friends to lovers standalone romance, from New York Times bestselling Corinne Michaels & USA Today bestselling Melanie Harlow, is available now!

Rule number one for a professional matchmaker?

Don’t fall in love with your client.

I screwed that up when I fell for my best friend, Reid Fortino. He’s gorgeous, successful, and sexy as hell. I figured it would be easy to find him a match—and save the family business at the same time.

But the more time I spend attempting to find the perfect girl, the more I realize how much I want him for my own. What’s the harm if we give in for just one night?

I should have known that would never be enough.

Now I’m on the verge of losing my job and my heart.

We were an imperfect match from the start, but I don’t know how to let him go.

What would it be like to have her that way? Skin to skin? Breathless and begging? My body inside hers?

I want answers, I think as I open the door to our building.

No, I need them.

I take the elevator up to our floor and go right to her apartment. Using the key she gave me, I unlock her door, smiling that she still hasn’t changed the lock, and head inside.

“Reid?” She jumps off the couch and I freeze.

Jesus, she’s fucking beautiful. I’ve seen her a million times like this, but I don’t know what it is—I can’t breathe.

Her hair is piled up on top of her head in some sort of nest, the glasses that she swears she doesn’t need are on, and her legs … God, her legs. Long, sweet, slender … they would look perfect around my neck.

“What are you doing here? If this is about …” She stops talking and looks at me, her eyes full of confusion as I watch her chest rise and fall.

I walk toward her, unable to stand still. My hands grip her cheeks, and I pull her mouth to mine. Her gasp is swallowed by the searing kiss. Her fingers wrap around my wrists and I don’t know if she’s trying to stop me, but I’m going to keep going until she does.

Yet she never does. Instead of pushing me away, her hands move to my hips.

Willow kisses me back.

She kisses me like this is the only option.

She kisses me harder and more passionately than the last time.

She gives as much as she takes and I fucking revel in it.

This is crazy, but I don’t care. It’s right. It’s everything that finally makes sense. I wondered what it would be like and now I know—it’s fucking perfect.

“Reid.” She says my name and then pulls my mouth back to hers.

I kiss her, loving how our mouths fit and the way her tongue feels against mine.

“Tell me to stop.” I give her an out that I pray she won’t take.

“What?”

“Tell me now, Wills.”

I’m desperate for her. Seeing her tonight, knowing she was spying on me, did something to my heart that I can’t explain. It was the answer to the question that neither of us was willing to face.

There’s something here.

Maybe it’s new. Maybe it’s always been there but we didn’t see it. Maybe Willow and I needed to be pushed. Whatever the reason, the outcome is this.

She touches my face. Her fingertips are soft, and she moves her thumb to my lip. “I can’t. I don’t know what’s happening, but I don’t want it to stop.”

“Good, because I don’t think I could.”

My mouth is back to hers the second the words are out.

She giggles against my lips and I drink it in. Everything about Willow is sweet. Her mouth, her laughter, her heart. They all make her irresistible. I don’t know how I never saw it.

I break the kiss and scoop her into my arms, bringing her back to the bedroom. She doesn’t say anything, and I’m glad for it.

We’re both always in our heads and I’m very much ready to be in her instead.

I lay her down and crawl over her, loving how she looks at me with lust-filled eyes. “Tell me what you want, Wills.” She shakes her head and I know what she’s doing, but I’m not having it. “Don’t think, baby, just tell me.”

Her lids fall, closing me off to what she doesn’t want me to see, and I take a beat to really look at her. Lips swollen, shirt falling off her shoulder, hair fanning out on the bed. She looks like an angel.

“I want you to kiss me,” she whispers.

About the authors:

New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller Corinne Michaels is the author of nine romance novels. She’s an emotional, witty, sarcastic, and fun loving mom of two beautiful children. Corinne is happily married to the man of her dreams and is a former Navy wife.

After spending months away from her husband while he was deployed, reading and writing was her escape from the loneliness. She enjoys putting her characters through intense heartbreak and finding a way to heal them through their struggles. Her stories are chock full of emotion, humor, and unrelenting love.

USA Today Bestselling Author Melanie Harlow likes her martinis dry, her heels high, and her history with the naughty bits left in. When she’s not writing or reading, she gets her kicks from TV series like VEEP, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, and Homeland. She occasionally runs three miles, but only so she can have more gin and steak.

Melanie is the author of the AFTER WE FALL series, the HAPPY CRAZY LOVE series, the FRENCHED series, and the sexy historical SPEAK EASY duet, set in the 1920s. She lifts her glass to romance readers and writers from her home near Detroit, MI, where she lives with her husband, two daughters, and pet rabbit.